The Team Yamaha Motor France Ipone tested at Brno in order to be ready for the July 23 race with Shinichi Nakatomi and Sébastien Gimbert. After his Monza crash, Norick Abe had to rest and did not take part. Two other teams enjoyed this opportunity to test: Klaffi with Alex Barros and DFX with Michel Fabrizio. The results were very positive for the three teams, with Alex Barros beating the unofficial lap record with a time of 2’02.5 (previous record by Troy Corser: 2’02.694). Sébastien Gimbert with 2’02.6 was almost 3 seconds quicker than he was last year. Shinichi Nakatomi and Michel Fabrizio were also fast, and it is important to notice that all these times were made with race tyres. Nobody used qualifying tyres. The team worked on Gimbert’s Yamaha R1 mostly on the chassis set up: front fork, rear suspension rocker, and the France Equipement brake discs that were very satisfying. On Nakatomi’s R1, there was mostly development work on the swinging arm, the rear suspension rocker, the height of the motorcycle and the engine mapping. Most of the testing was done with 2005 Pirelli tyres, some 2006 models being used only at the end of the test session. On the Yamahas, the best times were made with the new rear 200 Pirelli. Martial Garcia (team-manager): “I am obviously happy with the results. I am sorry Norick Abe did not have the opportunity to be with us and I wish him a very good rest.” Unofficial results: Barros 2’02.5 ; Gimbert 2’02.6 : Fabrizio 2’03.2 : Nakatomi 2’03.4 Brno stats Practice record (2005): 2’02.694 Troy Corser (Suzuki) 158.531 km/h 2005 Yamaha Motor France practice times: Norifumi Abe: 2’03.954 / 11th and Sébastien Gimbert: 2’05.269 / 22nd Race 1 results 2005: 1-Corser (Suzuki), 2- Toseland (Ducati) 3-Laconi (Ducati) 4- Walker (Kawasaki) 5- Chili (Honda) 2005 Yamaha Motor France race 1 results: Norifumi Abe: 9th and Sébastien Gimbert: 19th Race 2 results 2005: 1- Haga (Yamaha) 2- Corser (Suzuki), 3- Vermeulen (Honda) 4-Abe (Yamaha Motor France) 5-Chili (Honda) 2005 Yamaha Motor France race 2 results: Norifumi Abe: 4th and Sébastien Gimbert: 17th Lap record (best race time 2005): 2’03.812 Troy Corser (Suzuki) 157.100 kph 5th round of the Superbike World Championship: May 26th at Silverstone (United Kingdom)